What a difference a couple of weeks make in football. In that period of time, Chelsea had been linked with moves for three of the World Cup's most coveted midfielders. Now as the World Cup has finished, it's believed that ALL three of those players are not coming to West London!.

That's the thing about the close season with the transfer window being open, there is always plenty of rumours and speculation. Some of it we read and think "what a load of rubbish" but some of it we all buy into.

The signing of Cesc Fabregas in my opinion will be hugely significant and he gives Mourinho the direct replacement for Frank Lampard. Fabregas of course joins Nemanja Matic as a new Mourinho signing and with the likes of Oscar, Willian, Ramires, Van Ginkel, Mikel and Oriol Romeu vying for a place in the managers plans, we could yet see one or two of those players leaving the club.

It's clear of the managers thinking here. Matic is the holding player that is the ball winner. Cesc Fabregas will be the architect of our play in the number ten position, he will be the one we look to for something to happen. The missing link is the engine that can play as a box to box midfielder, someone we can combine defending with attack.

Of course we have Ramires and without question, he has the best engine in the side but his lack of discipline can cause us real problems. Willian is another with a great engine but he is really that box to box midfielder Jose is looking for?

We are yet to see Van Ginkel perform on a consistent basis and we all know what Oscar can produce so that leaves Mikel and Romeu who both look like leaving the club before the window closes.

This leads me to the three players we have reportedly missed out on, Paul Pogba, Sami Khedira and Toni Kroos.

Paul Pogba:
Only recently, all the talk was of Chelsea looking to bring Paul Pogba to Stamford Bridge for a fee of around £60m. These reports gathered momentum after the player himself was spotted in London a couple of days ago.

However, Pogba's agent has flatly denied any move away from Juventus and states he intends to remain in Italy.

Sami Khedira:
Khedira impressed every single one of us against Brazil. His workrate was immense and if anything proved to all of us that he deserves a regular start which is something he has not had at Real Madrid under Carlo Ancelotti.

Chelsea have been linked with the German Midfielder who missed out on the World Cup Final last night due to an injury he suffered in the pre match warm up. Over the past six months or so, his name was always heavily linked with Chelsea.

However, if reports are to be believed today, Khedira has favoured a move to North London to link up with Mertersacker and Ozil with of course Alexis Sanchez who has just signed for Arsenal. The Gunners are signalling massive intent to fight for the Premier League title.

Toni Kroos:
After winning the World Cup last night, Toni Kroos revealed that he had fulfilled a dream and that he was about to move to Real Madrid which is another he has had for a while, ending all ties with Chelsea.

I really, really like Kroos and out of each of the players linked, he would have been the one I would favour ahead of Pogba and Khedira.

We have all sat and witnessed it, his use of the ball and his passing is better than most and he would have proven to be the missing third link in our midfield.

So Chelsea miss out on three (reported) targets. Will Jose Mourinho settle for what he has or will he turn to Tiago to fill the void? Only time will tell!

What do you think of our current midfield and of the reported targets we have missed out on?